Blog #10

I feel this class helped me grow as a writer because it made me realize I am a better writer than I thought I was.  My grades in this class surprised me and I am proud of myself for that.  I learned how to shorten my sentences and take out unnecessary information to strengthen my writing.  I don’t think I will continue to post on this blog, but I may consider creating another blog sometime in the future.  In my opinion the pros of blogging are that you can see how you have grown as a writer over time.  If you have a personal blog it can be a way to release emotions in writing and always be able to go back and read it again.  I didn’t really find any cons in having a blog.

Blog #9

To be honest I really don’t understand this poem at all.  I read this a few times and I still don’t really know what is going on, but I think that Ashbery mixes a technical form with cartoon characters to lighten up a more serious situation and to add humor.  Popeye is supposed to be a funny cartoon, so I assume that’s why he chose characters from that cartoon.  My favorite line in the poem is, “Rays of the sun refresh your sense of growing old.”  This was the only line from the poem that I kind of understood.  I think it means that the sun can make anyone happy and a beautiful day is much appreciated by anyone of any age.

In my freshman seminar class, perspectivies on women, we created a tumblr page to promote being comfortable with yourself, if you get the chance you should check it out! thanks :)

loveyourbodystockton.tumblr.com

Blog #8

They will be there for me when I am wrong,

And I can trust them with my greatest fears.

Being with you all, I know I belong.

We have all shared years of laughter and tears,

And are there through all of the ups and downs.

I can always know they will have my back,

And they can make me smile if I frown.

They are there to put be back if I crack.

When we are together, we seem to glow,

And even though we are so far apart,

And the time may seem to pass very slow,

Just know I will have you close to my heart.

If we go down, we go down together,

When we say best friends we mean forever.

Blog #7

When I think of the Vietnam war I think of a war for control.  America went to Vietnam to try and help the people so they wouldn’t be hurt under their countries harsh rulers.  This reminds me of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan because that is mainly the reason we invaded those countries.  Americans always feel the need to step in and help take control, even if it may not be our place to do so.  It’s hard to decide if we should help these countries because in trying to protect thousands of lives of those people living in the foreign countries we are jeopardizing our American soldiers’ lives.

Cultural Heritage

As Americans we are able to break free of our cultural heritage.  We have the rights and freedoms to change almost every aspect of our lives, including traditions and beliefs that at one time we may have been raised to live by.  Although we do have the personal freedom to make decisions about how we want to live our lives, society does tend to try and keep us in line in some ways.  The strong belief that you should take pride and support where you came from is definitely an idea that is taught at a young age. 

I don’t think that there is danger in disregarding societal norms.  The idea that you can be and act in whatever way you want as an individual is becoming much more accepting than it has been in the past.  Creativity and being unique is rewarded and encouraged by most in America.   

 

Blog #5

"The Love of my Life"

China and Jeremy are condemned by their peers, as they should be, in the story “The Love of My Life”.  Together they committed the heartless crime of murdering their newborn daughter by throwing her away in a dumpster.  Boyle showed me how this event is possible, but the story did not make me understand why this could ever happen.  I could never imagine giving birth to my baby and have the slightest bit of interest in the child’s life.  Even if I didn’t want to keep the baby, there are places to anonymously take unwanted babies so that a loving family can have the opportunity to adopt the child.  This is what shocked me most about China and Jeremy, they were both very smart young adults and I can’t understand how they would handle the situation in the manner that they chose.  China knew she was pregnant and did nothing about it.  She could have had an abortion or gave the baby up for adoption and nobody would have had to know but Jeremy.  There is absolutely no explanation for their behavior, and should take responsibility for their horrible actions.

Blog #4

After Mondays class I felt that I received very good constructive criticism on my first essay.  My peers were really helpful with fixing grammatical errors in my paper that criterion didn’t catch.  It was also beneficial because they could help explain the errors in person so I would be able to better understand what I did wrong.  After reading their papers I felt relieved that we had many of the same ideas and that I was on the right track for the basis of my paper.  It was also helpful because it gave me ideas of extra points I can make to strengthen my ideas.

Blog #3

Can serious drinking be part of one's cultural heritage?

Serious drinking can be a part of one’s cultural heritage.  Being Italian I grew up around my family almost always having a glass of wine with dinner, and it was not unusual for me to be offered to have a sip.  There are some effects to being around alcohol at a young age but I think it depends on the household and the level of severity to the drinking being done.  If you're parents are drinking very large amounts of alcohol a child may grow up to think that’s normal, like in the story “Drinking with Daddy” but if you are raised around casual drinking I think that a child will grow up to learn how to responsibly drink alcohol and not abuse it. 

“Two Kinds” Free Write

This was not my first time reading “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan.  I read this story two or three times while I was in high school and each time I was able take away something different from the story.  I personally cannot relate to the type of mother daughter relationship that Jing-mei and her mother had.  My parents have always been very supportive of me and every decision I have made in my life so far.  They never pushed me to do anything I didn’t want to, and I was never really compared to my sister in any bad way.  Some of my close friends have parents more like Jing-mei, and I can tell that the pressure to be perfect really takes a toll on them after a while. So especially after reading this story I became much more grateful for the parents I have and how they raised me. 

On the other hand I can relate to Jing-mei in the sense that I can be very stubborn, and sometimes I do not give something my all just to prove a point.  Jing-mei says, “So maybe I never really gave myself a fair chance.  I did pick up the basics pretty quickly, and I might have become a good pianist at that young age.  But I was so determined not to try, not to be anybody different that I learned to play only the most ear-splitting preludes, the most discordant hymns” (309).  When I read this I realized it sounded just like me, and I could see from an outside view how destructive being stubborn can be.  I now try to always give something my all and not give up do only put half my effort into a task.

All in all I think that anyone can come away from reading this story with a changed mind, whether you were raised with strict parents or not, there is something to learn.

Theme for "The Man in the Well"

The short story, “The Man in the Well” written by Ira Sher tells of a memory from his childhood.  While playing with a group of friends, cries of help were heard coming from a nearby well.  For days they anonymously communicated with the “man in the well,” who begged the children to tell their parents and to get help.  It seemed that as a group the children collectively decided not to tell anyone else about the man, and only aided him by smuggling food from dinner to bring him the next day.  They never learned much about the man, not even his name, and the only information they shared with him were their first names.

Order of importance in possible themes for "The Man in the Well"

1. Within groups, people may engage in conduct that is wilder, stranger, or more uncivilized than their unusual behavior when alone
2. Even in their later years, people may have trouble forgiving themselves for bad things they did when they were young.
3. Children are capable of conspiring with on another against the adult world.
4. When dealing with an adult, even a helpless one, children may have in their minds images of parental authority that affect how they treat the person.
5. People need to see one another’s faces if they are to trust one another.
6. Children may fail to understand when an adult is in danger.
7. Children may have difficulty sharing the perspective of another person.  
8. We should be more compassionate toward people who are trapped.

9. People project their fears or suspicions onto others, even those who do not actually pose a threat to them.

10. The psychological reality of children and adults is a deep well within themselves that they cannot see into.

Many themes can be taken from this short story, the first and main theme being, “Even in their later years, people may have trouble forgiving themselves for bad things they did when they were young.”   This theme stands out most because considering that the author is writing this story as a memory of his childhood, now being an adult,  it is obvious that he has not come to terms with the decisions he and his peers made at the time to not help the man in the well.  Even though he tries to convince himself what they did was right, the emotions put into the story and little details of how the man spoke showed otherwise.  Especially the fact that he remembers the sound of the rain that night, and thinking how he would never go back to the well in his life, shows he did not completely come to terms with the actions he made as a child.

The next theme I found most important and relevant to this story was, “Within groups, people may engage in conduct that is wilder, stranger, or more uncivilized than their usual behavior when alone.”  Sometimes when people are surrounded by their peers, what they feel is right or the most moral thing to do it taken away by wanting to follow the group and not stand out.  The narrator admits this to be true when he says, “Everyone, like myself, was probably on the verge of fetching a rope or asking where we could find a ladder, but then we looked around at each other and it was decided.”  If each of those kids were alone when they found the man in the well the chances that they would have gone to get help was probably much higher, but as a group their personal beliefs were compromised.

Tying into the previous theme, “Children are capable of conspiring with one another against the adult world,” applies to “The Man in the Well” because the children, for the most part, stayed together as a group in their decisions not to help the man.  The story may have ended differently if it was another child, or a friend stuck in the well rather than an adult.

“When dealing with an adult, even a helpless one, children may have in their minds images of parental authority that affect how they treat the person.”  This theme stuck out to me especially in regard to narrator of the story because on several occasions the mother is mentioned crying at night.  It can be assumed that she was fighting with the father, who the narrator may have related to the man in the well.

The next three themes that are relatable are, “People need to see one another’s faces if they are to trust one another,” “Children may have difficulty sharing the perspective of another person,” and “Children may fail to understand when an adult is in danger.”  If the children were able to see the man stuck in the bottom of the dark well, they would have been able to see that he genuinely needed their help, and if they could have seen his face when he pleaded with them it would have been much harder to ignore in getting him help.  This connects to children not being able to understand when an adult is in danger, and children may have difficulty sharing the perspective of another person.  If the children were a few years older they would have been more likely to understand what serious conditions the man was in, and how serious it was that the children knew about him and did nothing to save his life. Also their age makes it harder to image what it would be like to be in the position of being stuck in a well.

We should be more compassionate toward people who are trapped, is a theme that I think is very obvious in the sense that its morally correct to help anyone if they are trapped in any way.

The last two themes, “People project their fears or suspicions onto others, even those who do not actually pose a threat to them” and “the psychological reality of children and adults is a deep well within themselves that they cannot see into” serve the least amount of importance to this short story.  I don’t feel that the children felt threatened by the man in the well and I don’t think there was any psychological reason deep within the children when they did nothing to help him.

In conclusion the most important themes of, “The Man in the Well” are that sometimes self-forgiveness may never come even with age, being a part of a group can lead one to take part in activities that are not always in line with their personal beliefs, and when put together children can conspire against adults.

 

This semester I hope to pass all my classes, especailly this rhetoric and composition class becuase I am not the best writer.  For me the transition from high school to college is more difficult than I expected it would be and I am very hard on myself, so I hope that with time I will become more adjusted!